All about HUD’s Eviction Protection Grant Program

In 2020, as part of the omnibus relief/budget bill, Congress provided funding to the Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make grants for the following purpose:

competitive grants to nonprofit or governmental entities to provide legal assistance (including assistance related to pretrial activities, trial activities, post-trial activities and alternative dispute resolution) at no cost to eligible low-income tenants at risk of or subject to eviction: Provided further, That in awarding grants under the preceding proviso, the Secretary shall give preference to applicants that include a marketing strategy for residents of areas with high rates of eviction, have experience providing no-cost legal assistance to low-income individuals, including those with limited English proficiency or disabilities, and have sufficient capacity to administer such assistance: Provided further, That the Secretary shall ensure, to the extent practicable, that the proportion of eligible tenants living in rural areas who will receive legal assistance with grant funds made available under this heading is not less than the overall proportion of eligible tenants who live in rural areas.

From 2020 to 2024, Congress put a total of $80 million into what is called the Eviction Protection Grant Program.

In 2021, HUD announced the first set of grantees, which allocated the first $20 million to 10 different legal services organizations for awards ranging from $1 million to $2.4 million.  In 2022, HUD announced the second set of grantees, which allocated the second $20 million to 11 different legal services organizations for awards again ranging from $1 million to $2.4 million.

In June 2024, HUD announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the third and fourth pots of $20 million each.  Grant applications are due on August 20, 2024.  About right to counsel, the NOFO notes that “Right to counsel programs are codified guarantees that all tenants, or a defined class, must receive representation in eviction proceedings. Seventeen cities, four states, and one county have enacted right to counsel legislation, and over 60 cities expanded representation access as of fall 2023.  Studies consistently find that represented tenants are more likely to remain in their homes and less likely to suffer collateral consequences of an eviction record.  Further, jurisdictions are seeing cultural shifts in courts and improved interactional and informational outcomes, such as judges discussing rights and options with tenants.” 

Some other relevant bits from the 2024 NOFO:

•  The estimated project start date is 11/18/24.
• The NOFO states they expect to make 25 awards ranging from $500k to $2.5 million each.
• While prior EPGP grantees are eligible to apply, “At least half of the total funds will be available to award to applicants who have not received FY 2021 or FY 2022 EPGP funds as an awardee or subrecipient.”
• While they’re putting the entire $40 million out for RFP at once ($20 million from the FY23 appropriation and $20 million from the FY24 appropriation), the RFP specifies that “No applicant will receive both FY 2023 and FY 2024 funds.”
• Eligible services can include eviction defense, fair housing / civil rights matters, representation for pre-filing work, and post-eviction assistance (record sealing, housing search work, healthcare/school preservation work, etc.)
• The criteria that proposals will be evaluated on include the degree of need in the community, the soundness of the proposed legal services plan, the proposed marketing / outreach plan, the capacity / experience of the organization proposing to provide the services, experience promoting equity, and the data collection / evaluation plan.  While the long-term sustainability of the proposed project isn’t a specific evaluation of proposals, RTC does provide systemic impacts (like empowering tenants outside the courtroom, identifying systemic issues or bad actors, changing LL / court behavior, and improving delivery of services) that can be harder to achieve with a shorter-term intervention, and the proposal evaluation does include looking at expected outcomes.